Star Wars Battlefront 2 review

One of the most talked about games of 2017 must be Battlefront 2, most of you will know why. Loot crates and the slow (unfair) online progression. Hence the reason why we decided to publish the review a little bit later. Don’t be fooled though, besides all the negative things this is one of the best Star Wars games in a while. Prepare your AT-AT walker because we are diving into the Star Wars Battlefront 2 review!

These black guys in the Imperial army? They don’t shoot much better than normal stormtroopers.

THE GOOD

It isn’t easy delivering a fresh and new character in the big and well-known Star Wars world. Iden Versio, performed by Janina Gavankar (True Blood) is a great addition in the Sci-Fi world. Giving a different perspective in some key-moments. Versio’s personality and background story are so strong, had so much depth and is such a great fit into the world that I truly admire not only DICE’s work, but especially Janina’s performance for delivering such an awesome realistic character. I have to say that I’m shocked and disappointed that for example “The Game Awards” didn’t add her for the best performance award.

An outstanding visual performance, that is literally a dream for Star Wars fans. The game joins Assassin’s Creed: Origins on the list as most impressive Xbox One X game, it’s simply stunning and clear day and night compared with the normal Xbox One version. Without a doubt, the environments and detail found in for example the forests from the home world from the Wookies are on another development level.

(Online) I’m particularly glad that they got rid of the immersion breaking power ups that could be found in the previous Battlefront game. Now you simply buy upgrades inside the multiplayer match, removing that typical power up camping phenomenon that plagued the first one on Xbox One. Anyway, you get points for nearly everything – even dying! – the better you do, the faster you can buy beneficial items on the respawn screen. Things like hero characters or vehicles, the result brings some memorable online moments that simply is a necessity for Star Wars fans.

Fan service at its best, Battlefront 2 perfectly captures all the small details from Star Wars with recognizable moments, highly detailed characters and vehicles. Fans of Star Wars are lucky to have such a game, I wish the same could be said for Doctor Who… (with micro transactions to change the look of the Tartis, if we follow the path from Battlefront 2)

I was happy to see the reload mechanic from Gears of War, lots of ideas have been copied from that game but the best feature is surprisingly left in the dark by many games. Not by Battlefront 2 though, now you have more skill and tactic while having a chaotic battle. If you don’t reload by yourself and let the gun overheat you get an option to faster reload with a bonus, this is sometimes a hard thing to do in the heat of battle but such a welcome feature to add more depth and fun moments in the game. If you miss the sweet spot you are left with a longer reload time, and I don’t need to tell you how bad that can be in an online match.

My last positive thing about Battlefront 2 is the sound, incredible. What a fantastic thing to hear. Lightsabers, explosions, the tremble of AT-AT Walkers, spaceships that are flying over head, the guns.. it is an overwhelming positive eargasm.

MIXED FEELINGS

Better than nothing I guess but the four to five-hour long campaign is really short. A huge shame because, as you know, I loved Iden Versio a lot. As with many online focused games (Titanfall 2 being the exception, that SP-mode was brilliant) the single player mode is a laughable attempt to fill in some sequel requirements. I’m not saying that the short experience was bad, it was a joy to finish the campaign but I had the impression that I was on a city tour where the tourist guide showed you all the sweet spots without much consistency.

THE BAD

The visual outstanding experience is maybe a little too demanding for the normal Xbox One version, giving you an extremely blurry screen with quite a few frame drops. This is definitely a game that should be played on Xbox One X.

(Online) Poisoning the awesome online fights is the awful progression system. EA already did some major changes, but to launch the game with this mechanic was greedy and unexplainable to begin with. Let me send a clear message before I continue, the loot crates-system can be great for gamers but not if you do it for pay-to-win scenarios. I hope you learn from this EA, you had a terrible 2017 and it’s mainly all by bad decisions from upper hand. That said, the progression system is confusing, even with all the changes now and isn’t rewarding enough for the time required.

[8/10]Painful to see that a fantastic game at its core is having unwanted negative press and gamers feedback by some greedy EA bosses. Know though, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a massive and insanely fun online game with outstanding visuals and sound. Character Versio is awesome but not used to full potential by the weak overall story.

Dev: DICE Publisher:EAPlayed on: Xbox One X and Xbox One | LifeisXbox received a digital review code, provided by EA.